Will male turkey take care of babies.

[Hankstroy]

This morning we found our mother turkey dead ( we think from a hawk). Anyway she has two babies. The father has always hung around mom and babies and has been with the babies all day. We tried catching them several times and failed but they always made it back to dad. When they cry he follows cries. We did eventually catch them An hour ago. The babies are around a month old. Although dad seems to be protective of them and they have plenty of food and water around, we are worried he would not be able to keep them warm at night. We have many inside areas but mother choose to have her babies in the orchard in some tall weeds. They have always been free range. We put the babies in a large coop we use for young pullets (Turkey and chick), but have never had ones in their before that are used to being free range. They are circling the cage peeking at the wire and crying like crazy. I'm don't want them to freeze to death tonight but don't want to stress the out and kill them either. Would they be better of left with dad or kept in our coop with a heat lamp?

 

[CuzChickens]

Welcome to Backyard chickens Hankstroy !! I hope you enjoy it and the camaraderie here and everybody that goes nuts over chickens (me being one of them....) Have fun! And ask questions! My initial thought would be no, he will not take care of them, but after reading that, I don't know, he might! I would put them under a heat lamp as a better safe than sorry kind of thing, but if you can not catch them and he seems to be taking care of them, I might chance it.

 

[Hankstroy]

Thanks, we did catch them and put them in a coop with just the two of them. They have a heat lamp and they settled down a bit so hopefully we made the right choice.

 

[countrygirl1178]

I have a male broad brested white that from the day i put three five week old and one three week old royal palms in the same pen he took over the duty of mom so yes it is possible i open the pen as long as im home and they all go in and out at will untill dark then i clise it up

 

[Hankstroy]

Did he keep them warm at night? How warm are the nights where you live?

 

[countrygirl1178]

Yes he kept them warm at night and i observed all four climbing all over while laying down right before they settled if you look close you will see the head of the three week old and our nights were down in the 60 range

 

[Hankstroy]

Thanks so much. I may let our dad give it a try as they are obviously not happy in the coop I have them in.

 

[Tina in Jacksonville]

My Tom takes great care of the poults. At night he roosts with them & nestles them under his wings. They aren’t even his. I hatched them from a friends eggs & put them in with the general population (chickens & turkeys) when they were 2 months old. My female could care less!